Chapter 201: Negotiating
"Absolutely not!" he screeched, rising from his seat so fast the table shook. His bulk rippled in motion as four chins jiggled like angry, trembling jelly. He pointed an indignant sausage finger toward Kaiden before shouting, "You've got some goddamn nerve coming in here with demands, kid!"
He panted like he'd just run a mile, fat fists planted on the glossy table.
Renzo, calmer but on the exact same page, grunted and adjusted the collar of his velvet blazer.
"Perhaps you're too young to understand… Or maybe your brain is just filled with useless stuff. But you signed a contract with us. You gave us the rights to those videos. In legal terms, you already consented. Those films are our property."
Next to Renzo, Vesta leaned forward, legs crossed over one another as she sipped her drink. Her red lipstick glinted strongly under the light. "Adults don't throw hissy fits about deals they regret. They move on. Learn from it."
The tension in the air coiled tighter, but Kaiden didn't flinch. Didn't hesitate. He simply reached for a chair and sat down.
Calmly. Casually. As if he owned the damn room.
He rested his forearms on the table, his posture relaxed but undeniable. Like a warlord holding court in enemy territory.
Kaiden responded in a low voice. "Deals can be redone if a new agreement is reached. It happens all the time."
He glanced at Marlow, at Renzo, then at Vesta.
"Nothing is set in stone in a rapidly changing world. Especially not in our world. Where the rules shift with power. And power… shifts fast."
The Valkyries remained standing behind him, silent sentinels with cold expressions and unspoken menace in their stillness. Naturally, they weren't fond of this place and their practices to prey upon young, desperate women.
The executives, for the first time, looked uncertain.
Zadie watched Kaiden carefully. The boy she remembered had vanished completely. Now she was sure of it.
She set her glass down. Slowly.
"Then what exactly are you proposing, Kaiden?"
Kaiden answered it without hesitation. "I was paid nine hundred bucks. Total. For all three videos. My girls got a bit more. A few thousand between them. Altogether, we didn't even get ten thousand for the entire shoot."
Delia gave a derisive scoff, her painted nails tapping against her wine glass impatiently. "So what? You all agreed to the contract and the discussed amount. XXXVidz didn't force anyone to do anything."
Kaiden shook his head with a little grin tugging at his lips. "I'm not here to argue about back pay. I'm here to buy them."
"Three hundred million dollars. A hundred for each video."
The silence that followed was immediate.
Even among jaded, profit-obsessed executives, that number stunned.
Marlow's jaw shifted, his chin fat bouncing as his mouth fell open. Vesta nearly dropped her glass. Renzo's eyes narrowed, scanning Kaiden for signs of deceit. Delia blinked once, then twice, as if her ears had deceived her.
Zadie was the first to recover, but even she looked rattled. 'That number… It's absurd.'
Even with global campaigns, even if the Valhalla's Sinners went full viral, even if they cornered the awakened-porn nostalgia market… the net profit still might not reach that sum. And Kaiden was offering it to them on a silver platter. No risk. No man-hours invested. Just immediate, obscene profit.
Then Marlow snapped, red-faced and wheezing.
"This is a goddamn joke!" As soon as he shouted those words, his sweaty fingers moved to grip the edge of the table. "You were a nobody last week, kid! You fucked in front of a green screen for less than rent money, and now you're throwing nine figures around like candy? Bluff! Complete bluff!"
Kaiden chuckled in response to the fatty's words.
"You're right," Kaiden admitted, stretching leisurely in the chair. "We don't have three hundred million. Right now."
Nyx's steadfast voice sounded from behind him. "But business doesn't move on what you have; it moves on what people think you can make. Credit. Leverage. Anticipation."
Luna tilted her head, wearing a big smirk on her delicate face. "We're kinda big now. Since we walked into this room, we've already made tens of thousands off of passive views from our latest video."
Aria giggled sweetly, her beautiful voice as light as cotton candy… until it wasn't.
Her laughter cut off from one moment to the next, and her smile vanished. The temperature in the room seemed to plummet as her eyes darkened into something far colder, far more calculating.
Then she spoke.
"Now imagine if we dropped a new one… Something spicy. A dungeon setting, perhaps. Kai with a sexy dark elf, or maybe a vampire…"
She tilted her head just slightly, her long lashes fluttering once in their direction, feeling an awful lot as if they were guillotine blades in reality.
"Think about the traction that would get. The Awakened Platform algorithm is practically screaming for more already."
Not a soul moved. Even the execs who had just rejected Kaiden's offer felt the air grow tighter. Quiet glances were exchanged. Calculations were performed behind narrowed eyes.
But then Renzo shook his head. Marlow followed with a derisive grunt. Delia sighed, brushing a curl of silver hair back. Vesta swirled her drink, eyes closed.
Zadie kept her gaze on Kaiden.
"Tempting offer," Vesta admitted smoothly. "More tempting than I ever thought a pair of brats would manage."
"But it's not just about money," Renzo added. "You're missing the long game, boy."
"The value of those videos isn't only in the views and income," Delia chimed in. "It's in the weight they carry. With those videos, we can prove to investors and awakened platform viewers that we've already captured top-tier talent. It gives us legitimacy to move into the market not as wannabe nobodies, but as an established brand."
"Exactly!" Marlow rumbled. "If we want into the awakened porn market, we need that kind of credibility. That kind of precedent. You four are walking golden tickets that will fatten our wallets to never-before-seen heights!"
Vesta nodded in agreement. "Three hundred million is a good number. But it's a static number at the end of the day. With your videos, we open a door to numbers that have the potential to skyrocket over all our other videos, just as your content has, thanks to the monster subjugation one."
Zadie stayed quiet. Still watching. Still measuring. But her fingers tapped slowly against her chair's armrest.
They were turning him down.
Kaiden let out a soft sigh. Not the sound of defeat, no.
It was the sound of inevitability.
"I see how things are." he said calmly, his voice carrying that same cool, biting edge. "can't say I didn't expect it."
But instead of looking cornered or desperate, he leaned further back in the chair. He looked… disappointed.
Slowly, deliberately, Kaiden raised both boots and rested them on the crystal boardroom table with an audible thud. He didn't care about the gasps or the looks that such actions earned him from the execs. He reached behind him with an open palm, not even needing to speak.
Aria—expression unreadable—placed her phone into his hand.
He swiped once. A video began to play.
"Let's shift the conversation."
The screen lit up.
And what the executives saw made them all stiffen.
They couldn't believe what they were seeing.